Uzbekistan lashes out at Straw

[norml]

Uzbekistan lashes out at Straw
15/05/2005 17:06 - (SA)




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Tashkent - Uzbekistan on Sunday firmly rejected foreign criticism of its troops' bloody suppression of an uprising in the east of the country, denying that the soldiers had opened fire on demonstrators.

Witnesses said hundreds were killed on Friday when soldiers fired on protesters outside the local administration building in the city of Andijan.

The Uzbek foreign ministry issued a statement expressing surprise about critical statements by British foreign secretary Jack Straw, "who, being thousands of kilometres away from Andijan, was so well aware of the details of the clashes in that city."

"From where has Jack Straw learned that law enforcement had 'opened fire on demonstrators' if that did not take place at all,"' the ministry said.




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http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1705362,00.html

[acmavm]

1. I see the Uzbek foreign minister is using the bush** administration method

of dealing with situations not particularly pleasant or showing the government in a good light. "When the news is bad or things aren't going well lie, lie and lie again."

[bennywhale]

2. Jack Straw was the one who sacked the British Ambassador to Uzbeckistan

for highlighting that the president was boiling his political opponents to death.

[Spazito]

3. Yep, the hypocrisy of Straw speaking out is beyond the pale

but to be expected from the blair gang.

[allemand]

4. But at least he is speaking out.

Compare that to the offical reaction of the Bush administration: asking demonstrators to "exercise restraint" while they are being massacred.

[allemand]

5. Britain urges Uzbekistan to allow in Red Cross

15 May 2005 14:30:00 GMT
Source: Reuters

LONDON, May 15 (Reuters) -
Britain called on Uzbekistan on Sunday to allow the Red Cross and foreign observers into the country to check reports hundreds had been killed in unrest.

"The situation is very serious, there has been a clear abuse of human rights, a lack of democracy and a lack of openness," Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told BBC Radio.

"We don't know exactly the number of casualties but plainly quite a number of people have been killed or have been injured as a result of protests against the government," Straw said.

"We have to have immediately transparency about what is going on, openness and much higher standards in handling the demonstrators," he added.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L1565904.htm

[Hand]

6. "And in addition..."

"...monkeys must fly out of my ass," Straw added. :sarcasm:
They backed this regime, now they're clutching at straws... heh heh, so to speak. :spank:

[norml]

7. Shot down, ‘like rabbits’

Shot down, ‘like rabbits’




Relatives of a victim carry his coffin in Andizhan. (Reuters)

Andizhan (Uzbekistan), May 15 (Reuters): Families of hundreds killed in Uzbekistan when troops opened fire to quell protests buried their dead today as witnesses told of bloody mayhem in which women and children were shot “like rabbits”.

In a single incident in Andizhan on Friday, witnesses said soldiers had fired on a crowd including women and children and their own police comrades who were begging them not to shoot.

Hundreds of bodies lay overnight outside the eastern town’s School No. 15 after the massacre until they were removed in the early hours yesterday, the witnesses, who did not wish to be named, said.

Islam Karimov, autocratic President of the mainly Muslim Central Asian state, said troops were given no order to fire in Andizhan. He blamed the violence on rebels belonging to the outlawed Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir. Hizb ut-Tahrir denied involvement.




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http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050516/asp/foreign/story_4745340.asp

[norml]

8. The crushing grip of a ruthless long-time ruler

The crushing grip of a ruthless long-time ruler

CALUM MACDONALD May 16 2005




LITTLE has changed in Uzbekistan since the collapse of communism and the break-up of the old Soviet Union, least of all the man in charge.
Islam Karimov, Uzbekistan's autocratic president, has dominated the central Asian republic since 1989, when he took over as leader of the communist party.
The following year he became president and has since retained a firm grip on power.
The orphan son of a Tajik mother and Uzbek father, his rule has been characterised by oppression, torture, human rights abuses and a failing economy.
Mr Karimov, 67, is from the city of Samarkand in Uzbekistan and is an economist by profession. During the days of Soviet Uzbekistan he served as finance minister, one of several senior government posts he held.




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http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/39344.html